LOGIN74 Lotty knew something was wrong the moment Decker came back to their room and tried to act like nothing was wrong. He was too calm. That was the problem. Not relaxed. Not easy. Controlled. Carefully controlled in the way he got when violence had already crossed his mind and strategy was now keeping it on a leash. She stood near the table by the window, still in a loose shirt and trousers, her hair half braided for bed, and watched him unbutton his cuffs with measured precision. “You’re doing that thing again,” she said. Decker glanced up. “What thing?” “The one where you pretend everything’s fine while your entire body says otherwise.” His mouth twitched once. “Very descriptive.” “I’m a doctor.” “That’s not medical.” “It’s accurate.” He set the cufflinks down and moved toward the sideboard where a half-finished glass of water waited. He drank some, buying himself a second. Lotty folded her arms. “That was avoidance.” “Yes.” She narrowed her eyes. “Decker.” He looked at
73 The packhouse had gone from celebration to containment in less than an hour. Doors quietly sealed. Corridors watched. Movement controlled without panic. To anyone unaware, Dark Mountain had simply settled after a long night. To the wolves who mattered it had locked down. Three separate rooms. Three separate prisoners. Three separate interrogations. And one shared understanding between the Alpha, his Beta, and his General: Do not bring in the suspects yet. Not until they knew exactly how deep the rot went. Decker’s room. The room he chose was small. Stone walls. No windows. One table bolted to the floor. No distractions. No escape. The wolf across from him was the one from the sitting room the one Hale’s false schedule had drawn in like bait on a hook. He wasn’t a high-ranking wolf. Not a leader. But he wasn’t a mindless rogue either. There was discipline in the way he held himself, even with his hands bound and his throat still marked from where Decker had pinned him to the wal
72 With the Luna ceremony complete, Dark Mountain no longer stood on uncertain ground. That mattered. More than Decker would admit out loud. The pack had seen Lotty at his side. They had accepted her. They had howled for her, celebrated her, and watched her stand beneath the weight of the title without bending. That piece was settled. Now he could turn his full attention back to the rot still buried inside his pack. And this time, he intended to tear it out cleanly. The traps were already in motion. Bennet had received altered correspondence through council channels, small, subtle discrepancies tied to meeting logistics and alliance communications. Nothing dramatic. Just enough to tempt a careful wolf into passing along information he should not have. Kellan had been fed a revised eastern patrol pattern through Jared’s office. The route changes were meaningless on their own, but if they drifted where they shouldn’t, Decker would know. And Hale… Hale now held a household movement
71 The packhouse had finally gone quiet. Not silent Dark Mountain never truly was but quieter in a way that only came after something big had been claimed, witnessed, and celebrated. The echoes of music still lingered faintly in the walls, laughter carried down distant corridors, and somewhere far below a stubborn group of wolves refused to let the night end. But up here it was still. Decker stood in his office beneath a low lamplight, Matthew’s file spread open across his desk. The Luna ceremony was over. Lotty was his Luna. The pack had accepted it. And now, with the mountain settled for the night, Decker turned his attention back to the part no one had celebrated. The rot. He had been reading for over an hour. Not skimming. Reading. Again and again, forcing himself past the satisfaction of the ceremony and into the colder reality waiting underneath it. Because the truth didn’t care that the pack had howled for their Luna. It didn’t care that the mountain had felt whole for a fe
70 As the night stretched on, the celebration softened. The music didn’t stop but it slowed, shifting from lively dances to something deeper, more rhythmic, more intimate. The louder voices faded into clusters of quieter conversation. Children had long since been carried off to beds or curled up asleep on chairs, wrapped in blankets and laughter that had finally worn them out. The great hall still glowed with candlelight, but the edges of it had grown calmer. Full. Satisfied. Dark Mountain had celebrated. Now it was settling. Lotty stood near one of the open archways, the cool night air brushing her skin as she looked out over the courtyard. Lanterns swayed gently, and a few stubborn groups of wolves still lingered outside, unwilling to let the night end just yet. Behind her, the hall hummed with the last of the celebration. Beside her Decker. He hadn’t left her side all night. Not once. Even now, as things quieted, his presence remained steady and close, one hand resting lightly
69 The celebration began the moment the ceremony ended. Not politely. Not gradually. One heartbeat the great hall still held the solemn weight of vows and witness and howling pack voices echoing against stone and the next, Dark Mountain came alive. The doors were opened wide, and wolves poured in from every corridor and courtyard path, from the lower houses and outer grounds and nearby dens. The high-ranking seats near the front of the hall no longer mattered. Rank softened for one night beneath music and firelight and the kind of collective joy that only came when a pack had survived something and decided, all at once, to breathe. By full dark, the hall and the grounds beyond it were crowded. Hundreds more had come. Families. Children. Older wolves with walking sticks and sharp eyes. Teenagers trying to look older than they were. Mated pairs with infants on their hips. Warriors still in ceremonial black, already loosening collars and jackets as wine and ale flowed more freely. Th
56 The hospital didn’t feel as tense on Lotty’s second day. That was the first thing she noticed. Not relaxed, never that but different. Less scrutiny. More… acceptance. Not complete, not unconditional, but enough that when she walked through the doors with Garrick at her shoulder, the staff didn
55 Lotty’s first day at the hospital started with a knot in her stomach and Garrick waiting outside her door like judgment in human form. He stood with his hands folded behind his back, dressed in dark clothes instead of formal guard gear, but nothing about him looked less watchful because of it.
54 The air shifted before they even arrived. Lotty felt it standing at Decker’s side on the wide stone steps of the packhouse, the late afternoon light stretching long shadows across the courtyard. The guards were tighter than usual. Patrols doubled along the perimeter. Even the wolves moving thro
49 By nightfall, the story had spread through Dark Mountain faster than any official announcement ever could. The woman at the Alpha’s side was a doctor. Not just a doctor. A good one. She had walked into the training hall, taken control of a crisis in seconds, and kept a warrior breathing long e







